Simple Faith

Bill Henry: I'm not as good-looking as this gal on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or whatever it is. I don't have as much as that guy. Look at all those... I wish I could do this, or I don't have as many followers on TikTok.

And Jesus says, "Who cares? You're mine. I say you're mine. Nothing can separate you from my love. I have a plan for you, and my plan's perfect for you."

Guest (Male): If the Lord Jesus were to come to you and give you a rundown of how things were going in your Christian walk, would you expect him to say that you were faithful, or would you expect him to give you some things to work on and get rid of in your life?

I think if we're honest, we would expect some helpful criticism from the Lord, both commendation and correction. But in Revelation chapter three, we see that the church in Philadelphia had only high commendation and no correction. That is a great testimony. Here's Pastor Bill Henry with today's edition of Simple Faith and a look at Revelation 3:7-13 and the letter to Philadelphia.

Bill Henry: As we're coming now to the sixth letter Jesus is dictating, remember, to the apostle John on the isle of Patmos. We've gone through five of the letters. If you'll remember the first letter, it was written to Ephesus that scholars call the loveless church. Then those same authors, the second letter to Smyrna, said Smyrna was the persecuted church. Then you come to Pergamos, which was the compromising church; Thyatira, the corrupt church; the fifth was Sardis and it was known as the dead church.

I've been excited to get to this letter here to Philadelphia. It is my favorite of the letters because this is called the faithful church. As you're going to see, and even as we just read, it's such a blessing. It's a great letter of encouragement, especially for the days that we're living in today. Notice he says here in verse seven, "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write." Again, we don't have to go buy a book of Bible codes and what does the angel of the church of Philadelphia mean? Simply go back to chapter one.

There at the end of the chapter, it tells us that the angel here is the pastor, the elder of the churches because he does this in each of the letters. It's to the angel or the pastor or the elder of the church in Philadelphia write. Most of us are familiar with Philadelphia. You might think of the Eagles or some other such thing. We have a city here in the United States and we all pretty much know it's called the City of Brotherly Love.

That's where Philadelphia gets its name from the Greek word *phileo*, which means brotherly love. This city, though, is located in Lydia and was about 28 miles south and east of our last letter, Sardis. It keeps moving around. Philadelphia was known in the area basically for their agricultural products, their fruits, and their vegetables. It was known for that, but it was also known for having many earthquakes. The city itself had been destroyed several times over hundreds of years and rebuilt time and time again.

The most recent time it was destroyed was in AD 37. The city was named after the king of Pergamum named Attalus Philadelphus, who had actually built the city. It's also the only letter, the only city, the only church of the seven letters that there's nothing negative said by Jesus. It's all encouragement. It's all straightforward, but it's really a neat letter as we're going to dig into it here this morning.

Notice he begins, "These things says He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David." Remember this is the book of Revelation, singular in the Greek there. Most of your Bibles, it doesn't say Revelations, which some pastors that I love will still call it that today. A lot of the Bibles will even say right there at the top it's not the revelation of John. It's not even the revelation of the Apocalypse. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ.

We need to remember this because it's a very important thought to have throughout the whole book and to really understand that this book is to reveal Jesus Christ in a new and a deeper way, especially to the church but also to the whole world. What's interesting to note is all the letters so far, as they were addressed from Jesus as he was revealing himself to each church in a new way, this is the first time that this doesn't correspond with a portion from chapter one.

All the other times he takes part of his description from chapter one and puts it in the beginning as he's addressing it, but this time he decides to go deeper because again, this is the faithful church. He says, "These things says He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David." Jesus alone, notice it first says that He who is holy. We need to understand something as Christians, that Jesus alone is holy.

Notice it doesn't say that He who likes to be holy or He who can be. It says He is holy. The Jewish reader right away would have flashed back to the Holy One of Israel back in the Old Testament and that this is a claim to be the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New. He alone is holy. Jesus is the God of the Old Testament. Jesus is the God of the New Testament. God alone is absolutely holy. We need to understand this.

Holy in the Greek is a word called *hagios*, and it literally means to be separate from evil, perfectly hating evil. There are no signs of evil or darkness in God. He's completely holy. Jesus Christ is completely holy. This is a very important thing for us to understand. That's why we can't go directly to God outside of Jesus Christ because there is none of us is righteous, no not one. All of our righteousness is filthy rags before the Lord.

And yet in Christ, when we come and we're covered in the blood of Jesus Christ, we too are made holy. Jesus is holy. Flip over to chapter four. You see all of heaven worshipping Jesus, calling him holy. Revelation four, verses six through eight says, "And before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass like crystal. All around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind. The first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox..."

"The third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like the eagle in flight. And the fourth living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within. All day and night, they never cease to say, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.'" Isn't that glorious as we get this glimpse into heaven and we see Jesus himself being worshipped as God?

Again, remember in our letter, Jesus himself is saying that he is holy. And yet in the Bible we read that only God is holy. I love to bring cultists, by the way, to this scripture. I love to bring them to the book of Revelation and say if Jesus isn't God and we're told in places that you only worship God alone, if Jesus isn't God then why is all heaven worshipping him? He is holy. He is pure.

Notice again that we are told back in our text that Jesus is holy. You and I, we're commanded to be holy as Jesus is holy. He who has called us is holy, you and I are commanded to be holy. Notice, Jesus is holy. You and I aren't holy in and of ourselves. We can be holy through Jesus Christ, but Jesus, he alone is holy. Again, we are to seek to be holy. We're commanded to do this in the Bible.

As we put our faith in Jesus Christ, and as we continually walk in him denying ourselves, putting off the old man, crucifying the old woman as we do that, we also remember we put on Christ. We don't just put these things off, we put on Christ Jesus. As we're putting on Jesus, guess what one of the things we're putting on? His holiness. We put on his holiness and thus we're to be those who are seeking to be set apart for Jesus, to be holy for the Lord.

To many today, the word holiness is a bad word even within the church. Oh, that equals legalism. No, it equals holiness. It equals to be holy and to despise evil, to not want any spot of evil in our lives. That is what our goal is to be. We're to be holy as he who has called us is holy, but we all need to understand this too: that we will never be perfect in being holy this side of heaven.

Not in the corruptible, we're still in the corruptible. Remember we must put on incorruption. The corruptible must put on the incorruption and we're told that. There will be that day, but it's not yet. But in Christ, the more that we walk in him, the more we die to self, guess what? The more holy we're going to be. The more our actions are going to be holy. The more our words are going to be holy. The more we're not going to like the dirtiness of the world.

We're not going to want to be spoiled. When our girls were younger and they'd get their hair done, they'd put on these pretty dresses and all this stuff, and then if they got their dress just a little spot somewhere, they would freak out. "Oh, I'm not pretty, it doesn't look perfect anymore." In Christ Jesus, we are perfect. This is what we need to remember: that in Jesus we are perfect and in Jesus we are to be holy as he who has called us is holy.

Now just a quick side note, we need to be careful, though, because there's also a thing called the holiness movement. In a synopsis, in a quick nutshell, it basically says that you are saved by your holiness and kept, your salvation is kept by you being holy. The more holy you are, the more close you are to Jesus. See, that's a wrong way of thinking. It's not a biblical way of thinking. Maybe a lot of us can slip into that.

If I'm having a good day, I woke up, I had my devotions, what a sweet time in prayer, sweet time in the Word. I'm just doing good. Somebody cut me off and I just said, "God bless you, my brother." It was a great day. And then we think that we're more holy. "Oh, I'm more holy today because I've been doing so good." And then the next day that same guy cuts you off and you honk your horn and there's things you want to do but you don't do anymore as a Christian, but you still sinned.

"Oh man, Lord, I did sin. Oh, I'm just not as holy as I was yesterday. I'm not as on fire as I was yesterday." But all the good works that we could ever do, even as a Christian, don't make us holy. We need to understand this. There's only one way that we're made holy and that's through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. He is holy, we are not. He makes us holy. But here's the cool part: the more that we again deny ourselves, the more that we crucify our flesh, the more that we put off the old man, the old woman, and the more we put on Christ, his holiness will become our holiness more and more.

The more that we're conformed into the image of Jesus Christ, the more holiness there'll be in our lives, the more holiness there'll be in our words. The weirdest thing in the world is, you ever meet somebody who's an older person? The older I get, it's like older's getting older. When I was 19, I'm ancient now. 60 years old, you're still alive? Now 60 is like, 80 doesn't sound too old anymore. But it's interesting, though, like when you meet an old person for the first time and you walk up and for some reason you just expect them, even if they're not a Christian.

But when all of a sudden they start cursing like a sailor, it's like, "Wait a minute, you're an old person. You're supposed to have some kind of morals. You're supposed to sound good." It's even more alarming when you meet somebody who's an older Christian. And again, you could be in your 30s and 40s and be an older Christian in Christ, or you could be in your 50s or 80s or 90s and they're a grumpy old person. And you're like, "Why are you grumpy? I don't get it."

If I'm in Christ and I've been in Christ a long time, I want to be more holy. I want to be more happy. I want to be more joyful in my life. Again, we can all have bad days, don't get me wrong, but once we're saved by the grace of Jesus Christ, God wants to go to work on us now. He wants to start taking us. He's the potter, we're the clay, and he's going to change us and do different things. "Oh no, I don't want that in your life anymore," and he breaks it off.

He does other things. And we as Christians, we can either go along with that or we jump off the wheel. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, I don't want you to hold on, Lord, no, no, no." Instead of being, "Yes, Lord, I am yours. Yes, Lord, take that sin away. I don't want it anymore. Oh yes, Lord, I still don't want this sin. I want you, Jesus." And we become more and more holy because Jesus is holy. If he's living within you, if he's living within me and he's growing and we're dying unto self more and more the older we get in Christ, the more gloriously we're going to look like Jesus.

I don't mean we're going to start growing a beard and get blue eyes and the surfer dude Jesus we see in a picture. No, people are going to see us and say, "There's something different about that guy. There's something different about that gal. How come you're not freaking out about what's going on today? How come you don't care about this or that? Why aren't you weeping? Why aren't you shutting down? This person just died, or you got the news that you have cancer or this or that."

Because I know where I'm going. I'm going to miss people here, but I know where I'm going. Jesus died for me. And so we grow in holiness because we grow in love. Jesus alone is holy. Notice next it says that Jesus alone is true. Jesus is holy, he is true. Basically, *alethinos* in the Greek here, it literally means the truth-loving, the speaking the truth. Jesus alone is truth. It's interesting: what is Satan called in the Bible? He's the father of lies.

Jesus is true, Satan is a liar. Satan is the father of lies. We need to understand, if we go away from the Word of God, if we go away from the truth of Jesus Christ and the holiness of the Lord that we find in his Word, we start to go off into lies. It doesn't matter whether we're in the church and we say that we're Christian, if we start to go away from the Word of God, we are going off against and away from truth because Jesus is true. Jesus is truth.

Again, it doesn't say that Jesus speaks the truth, which he does, but Jesus is the truth. Remember what we read in John 14:6? "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.'" Jesus is the truth, and here again that's reaffirmed. You want to know what the truth is today? Go to the Word of God because this is God's breathed-out truth. There are many today who they go against the Word of God even in the name of Jesus.

I was brought up in a church where basically they would mix in the Word of God, mix in a whole bunch of truth with a bunch of lies. Now I have a water up here, and if somebody put just one drop of cyanide in here, anybody want to drink? Not me. But you see, sometimes we'll take the truth with all this other lies mixed in instead of coming, "Lord, I just want you, Jesus. I want you. You are the truth. You are truth."

When we want the truth, we don't go to the world, please. As Christians, we need to stop going to the world. "Oh, I'm dealing with depression." Well, then repent and put your faith in Jesus Christ. "Oh, that's pretty mean, Pastor Bill." What do you think they did for the last 1900 years in the church? They didn't have antidepressant pills as they were facing lions in the arena in Rome. They didn't have to take drugs as they were being brought to the stake to die because they had the Spirit of God.

They had the Word of God, which is truth. And they believed what God says over what the world says. Why are we depressed? Because we're believing what the world says and we're not believing the truth of the Word. Of course we're going to be depressed. "I'm not as good-looking as this gal on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or whatever it is. I don't have as much as that guy. Look at all those... I wish I could do this, or I don't have as many followers on TikTok."

And Jesus says, "Who cares? You're mine. I say you're mine. Nothing can separate you from my love. I have a plan for you, and my plan's perfect for you. My thoughts for you are always good, never of evil." Dude, if we look at the world, it's almost always evil, isn't it? Well, of course we're going to need drugs to deal with all that junk if we're not deep in Christ. I'd rather be high on the Holy Spirit of God. "Be not drunk on wine, but be filled with the Spirit of God."

Some like to be filled with the spirit of the world. We have to be careful. Jesus is true. You want to know the truth about anything? We come here, we don't go out there. And by the way, we don't go in here either. We don't even say to Pastor Bill, "Bill, what's been your experience over the years?" Well, this is what the Bible says. I've had people tell me, "I don't want to hear what the Bible says." Well, I don't have anything else to give you.

Everything else I give you is just like a belly button. Everybody here have a belly button? Any outie, middle, mixed? We all have opinions. This is the truth. Jesus is the truth. Jesus is holy, he is true. Look at what it goes on to say: "He who has the keys of David." Jesus is the one who has the keys of David. Now basically, he's taking a description of who he is out of Isaiah chapter 22. Isaiah 21, you'll see there's a prophecy here and we come into the middle of the prophecy in Isaiah 22:22-24.

"And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open and none shall shut, and he shall shut and none shall open. I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house. And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue every small vessel from cups to the flagons." So Jesus here back in Revelation is claiming again to be the fulfillment of Isaiah 22:22.

It's beautiful. "I have the key of David." He who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens. Jesus alone has the keys to heaven. Jesus alone has the keys to heaven. Every other key out there that you can look at, every key that you might try to find through Buddha or Muhammad or Krishna or Joseph Smith or Mary Baker Eddy, whoever it is, those are false keys because they go against him who is holy, him who is true, and they go against the truth of the Word of God and they seek to lead you somewhere else.

Guest (Male): This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill's series in Revelation. It's our sincere hope and prayer that you've been blessed by the words you heard from Pastor Bill today. If you'd like to share today's message with someone, it's available at our website to either watch or listen, and you can actually download an audio MP3.

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